My culture and food adventures in beautiful Muscat, Oman continued at 7 a.m. to have a traditional Pakistani breakfast!
My guide Hussain from Oman Travel and I would be eating at Punjab Restaurant & Sweets, a 50-year-old shop that specializes in Pakistani breakfasts. It opens at 5 a.m. every morning and I was feeling hungry!
Inside, I saw them cooking several dishes often associated with Pakistani breakfast. I could see samosas, aloo parathas, pakoras, shami kebab, laddu, pani puri, karak, and more. As I went further into the kitchen, I also saw them making chicken biryani!
I watched the cooks flatten dough balls into parathas and fry up some puris. Elsewhere, I saw a bunch of Pakistani sweets, and then I sat down with some karak tea. It was frothy, hot, and full of cardamom.
First, they brought us our delicious Pakistani breakfast. It included dal chana, raita, halwa, a puri, an omelet, paratha, shami kebabs, veg & meat pakoras, and sweet lassi. The puri was flaky and crispy and amazing with the crumbly halwa. It took me back to my time in Islamabad!
The flaky paratha with the spicy omelet was amazing, as was the savory chana dal. It was light but super flavorful. I also loved the potato and spices in the shami kebab. The pakora actually contained vegetables and meat!
I loved the spices in the pakora. The lassi wasn’t thick like the kinds you get in Punjab. There was also an onion pakora, which I tried with a sweet and sour tomato chutney.
The omelet was amazing with a bit of yogurt and tomato chutney. Then, we had assorted sweets for dessert, including my favorite, rasmalai!
After our Pakistani breakfast, Hussain and I started with the laddu, followed by the decadent rose rasgulla. The barfi was amazing, as was the crumbly and dense milk pira.
The gulab jamun with milk paste was super unique. The milk paste was frozen and tasted so good. The most unique gulab jamun I’ve ever had in my life!
We finished with a hot, thick walnut halwa, which was crumbly, sweet, and decadent. It was my favorite dessert of all of them!
Then, we had some pani puri with a filling of chickpeas, potatoes, onion, cabbage, raita, pani, and the sweet chili chutney. It was a wild, sweet, and slightly spicy combination. The raita cooled it down. I finished by drinking the pani!
The guys there gave it to me for for free and gave us a box of sweets as a gift. We ate roughly half the menu for roughly $10 USD!
After finishing our Pakistani breakfast, we drove to Coffeeologist to get something to help me wake up! I went with a cold saffron latte, which contains saffron cream, milk, and a shot of espresso. It was very unique. They also gave me a blueberry cookie!
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